Maybe it's just the fact that organic is profitable and growing, or maybe its the fact that the new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, insisted -- or maybe its just good PR -- but the new vegetable garden at the USDA headquarters is getting dumped on.
With compost that is. Delivering the pile was none other than Jeff Moyer, farm director at the Rodale Institute, and new chair of the National Organic Standards Board. Ready to dig in were staff from the institute as well as the acting director of the National Organic Program, Barbara Robinson and board members of the Organic Trade Association.
"We're happy to donate a truckload of high-quality compost to biologically jump-start this welcome change to the USDA's front lawn," said Moyer, as the load came down.
Reports are there was some resistance from within USDA at the high profile organic plot -- not to mention some pressure from without, but as we found when we did a test of organic turf on the Mall, there is plenty of support within federal agencies for greening up -- it was just waiting for spring to sprout.
It's enough to make me run into DC and hand a resume to those folks!
To read the press release from The Rodale Institute, click here.
For more photos of the big dump, visit the photo page.
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